This is a fairly easy dish to prepare. It balances nice textures and flavours with the salty umami of bacon contrasting the refreshing crunch of asparagus.

More traditionally this appetiser is made by threading the pieces onto skewers and grilling them over hot coals.

They are a staple of Japanese yakitori restaurants, although I pan fry them in this recipe. I sadly have neither the grill nor the smokeless wonder of expertly crafted Japanese charcoal to hand.

If you have such a wonder, or a barbecue, you can try this the proper way, and it will almost certainly taste better, but the indoor kitchen pan-fry version is still very tasty.

You will need

• Bacon
• Fresh asparagus spears
• Wooden skewers
• An optional lemon
• A frying pan or griddle
• A sharp knife and chopping board

How to prepare

Start by soaking the skewers in water while you prepare everything else. I put them in a Tupperware container filled with water and weigh them down with a small dish that can fit into the tub.

Next, unwrap your asparagus and slice off the hard ends.

Then, cut the asparagus spears into bitesize lengths. This is normally about one or two cuts per spear.

Take your bacon, ideally in a uniform pile, and cut it roughly in two pieces along the line where it naturally separates.

Put the section with the more fatty, stringy consistency to the side and take the pile of medallion-shaped parts and cut them in half lengthwise.

These pink, meaty slices will form the mainstay of your wrapping. The stringy-fatty bits are very tasty but use them to wrap any leftover asparagus at the end.

If you’re left with some of the stringy bacon later it’s very good for dicing up and using to make egg fried rice (render it over a medium heat in a pan or wok before adding the rice and other ingredients). I actually added this to my slow cooker / crock pot to make ‘cheat’ fried rice using a recipe adapted from Kelly Kwok’s life changing book The Asian Slow Cooker.

This is not a sponsored post but this book is perfect for martinis at home. A slow cooker is the most sublime way to have your meal bubbling away while you get to enjoy a serene martin without the guilt of ordering takeaway. It’s like a reboot of mid-century Americana home-gadget utopia. Lashings of recommendations.

Okay back to the skewers.

Wrap each slice of bacon around a length of asparagus. Each slice should wrap round at least once if not twice and a bit.

Now it’s skewering time. Take care not to prick your finger as you slowly, and gently thread the wooden skewers through the middle of each asparagus piece. Try and get it right through the middle of the asparagus otherwise it might break.

If you do have breakages, you can use the bacon-asparagus pieces on each side to support the broken one. That’s what friends are for.

You can alternate your threading between asparagus stem and ‘point d’amour‘ (the tip) or you can have skewers that are all stem or all tip. It’s up to you.

Cooking

This does not take long. Heat a pan or griddle on high and add a little oil (mostly to prevent any sticking, otherwise you should get some fat from the bacon).

Once it’s very hot, add on your skewers (maybe only one or two at a time, depending on the size of the pan).

Cook for 2.5 minutes on one side, then flip and repeat.

Half way through each rotation, sprinkle a little water over the skewers, if nothing else for the sheer drama.

That should be all you need. The bacon should be nicely cooked and the asparagus should still be fresh and al dente. Remove from the heat at once and cook the remainder of the skewers in the same way.

The timings are pretty much the same if you are doing this over a grill or barbecue.

It makes grilling slightly easier if you’re using an open fire or barbecue if you set the skewers on a wire rack.

You can serve this dish warm, which is of course delicious, but it’s also very tasty when chilled, which makes it very easy to serve with a martini later.

Add a squeeze of lemon juice to really liven it up. I like to serve a cheek or two on the side. This also helps marry up the savoury flavours with the cold, citrus martini.

And if you’re enjoying a slow cooker meal as well, you’re in for an absolutely delightful evening.

Kanpai!